On Books

Because I have been tagged by the Diva herself

1) Number of books I own.

I had to do a collective count, because separating all our books into His, Hers, and the Short Ones' would take weeks. Our grand total is something over 1200, broken down thusly:

Our bedroom: 110 in the bookcase, 28 scattered hither and yon.
My ensuite: 15
Living room: 130 big people books, 146 small people books
Kitchen: 26 cookbooks, 11 others
Chickadee's room: 110
MonkeyBoy's room: 60 of his, 150 of ours.
Assorted boxes: somewhere between 300 and 500.

In the last year, we've divested ourselves of another, oh, 6 or 700 books, donated to the fledgling library on Mayne Island.

2) Last book I bought.

Although it horrifies me to admit this, I cannot remember the last book I bought. I've been rereading some of the hundreds of books we brought back from our storage locker for the last 3 or 4 months. I used to buy at least a book a week - it's an expensive habit, and I've had to cut back of late.

3) Last book I read.

Kushiel's Avatar, by Jacqueline Carey, third in a trilogy, a much-appreciated present from my love. Highly recommended if you like a little S&M with your fantasy.

4) Books that mean a lot to me.

I'm not especially sentimental about books - I think I've just read too many to form strong attachments (I'm a book slut, I admit it). Still, I have some favourites:

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien - I read this for the first time in Grade 2. I can't imagine that I really appreciated it at that age, but I do remember being quite taken with Smaug.

Narnia Series, CS Lewis - read at about the same age. My dad brought them home for me one at a time, a new one tucked in his overcoat pocket every Friday.

The Tale of Custard the Dragon, Ogden Nash - still one of my favourites, I can recite this one from memory.

Thomas Covenant series, Stephen R Donaldson - the first novel I read where the author had a bigger vocabulary than I did. Favourite new word learned: chiaroscuro

The Blue Castle, LM Montgomery. Overall not as good a book as Anne of Green Gables, but I identified more with the main character.

5) Tag (at least) five more.

Um, I'm going to wimp out on this one and let Dean do the tagging. Almost everyone on my list has already been hit. I obviously need to get out more.